Couple Holds 5K To Bring Awareness to Pregnancy Disorder

Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- A South Carolina couple is hoping to walk in the right direction with Columbia's first Promise Walk.

"My number one reason for doing this is because of our baby girl Lauren," Terrell Smith said.

Smith and his wife, Kimberly, were expecting a bouncing baby girl to come into their lives July 17, 2012.

But about four months into the pregnancy something went wrong.

"I had actually got HELLP syndrome, a very severe, traumatic onset of HELLP syndrome when I was at 21 weeks," Kimberly said. "And in the situation my blood pressure was 200/100, my liver was just going crazy and I was really sick and got to the emergency room and by that time her heart rate had actually stopped beating."

Their daughter, Lauren Smith, died of Preeclampsia complications.

It's a disorder that can cause seizure, stroke, organ failure and death of mother and baby. And HELLP syndrome is a more severe form.

"It was traumatic, I would never ever want to go through the same thing again," Terrell said.

The couple decided to bring awareness and educate people about preeclampsia by hosting Columbia's first Promise Walk.

Throughout her pregnancy, Kimberly didn't know anything about the disease.

"I never heard of preeclampsia, never heard of HEELP syndrome until I finally was conscious enough in the hospital for them to tell me what was going on with me and that's when they explained everything," Kimberly said.

A year after Lauren's death, they are ready to start another life.

"We are devout Christians, so our faith in God has put us in a place where we're able to believe again and that's exactly the route we took," Terrell said.

"We're happy that we're expecting again," Kimberly said. "Even though we had a traumatic situation that happened with the loss of our daughter last year we're not not allowing that to negatively impact our experience with this child."

Kimberly also wrote a book about her experience with preeclampsia called "Stepping Out of the Boat: From Faith to Faith After the Loss of a Child."